Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels sounded a bit surprised by the news of A.J. Brown going on injured reserve during his appearance on WEEI’s ‘Jones and Keefe’ Friday, and he acknowledged there’s no one else like the All-Pro receiver on the Patriots’ offense.
“That’s interesting, we weren’t in today so I haven’t quite heard all that stuff,” McDaniels said when the news, first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter Friday afternoon, was mentioned on the show. “Any injury that you get at this point in time of the season, you approach it with an all-hands on deck approach,” McDaniels continued. “We’ve got a lot of different skill guys who can do a lot of different things. There isn’t one person on our roster that can replace anybody like A.J. in the middle of the game or for a stretch of the season. So, we’ll band together and figure out what we can do well and try to get the guys in their places of strength.
Brown suffered a high ankle sprain in the third quarter of the Patriots’ season-opening loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He left the game for X-rays in the locker room and didn’t return. His injured reserve status means he’ll miss at least the next four games, and he cannot practice in the meantime. He can return against the New York Jets on October 18th, if healthy.
The Patriots traded a 2028 first-round pick and 2027 fifth-round pick for Brown at the beginning of the summer. Without Brown, the Patriots will field a wide receiver room that includes Romeo Doubs, Mack Hollins, DeMario Douglas, Kyle Williams, and Efton Chism. The Patriots traded wide receiver Kayshon Boutte before the start of the season.
